Atlanta , Georgia -LRB- CNN -RRB- Italy has David , Paris has the Mona Lisa and now , Atlanta has the Firebird I XP-21 .

Do n't laugh gallery snobs and car-haters : The automobile has vaulted from the streets to the lofty art world .

Even if automobiles are n't your thing , the Firebird 's bizarre wings and bubble cockpit are worth a peek . It 's among 17 `` concept cars '' on exhibit at Atlanta , Georgia 's High Museum of Art . Many of these are one-of-a-kind .

When you first walk into the exhibit , it 's clear these cars are n't designed for mere mortals . Every car has a price , and these are worth millions . But in reality , the unique nature of this collection makes them priceless in a growing market . Collectible car sales last year in the U.S. topped $ 1 billion .

Money aside , this exhibit really exemplifies America 's long and fiery hot love affair with cars .

These rolling masterpieces were never intended to be mass produced . They were meant to be romanced , idolized , even worshipped .

Concept cars are marketing tools designed to trigger buzz and spur sales . You can be sure the Da Vinci of General Motors -- legendary designer Harley Earl -- put just as much imagination into his jet-plane-looking Firebird as old Leonardo did with that smirking Mona .

`` These have got to be some of the world 's craziest , beautiful cars , '' a visitor says to me with a grin as big as the grill-work on a stunning '51 GM LeSabre XP-8 sitting a few feet away .

Beautiful , yes . Crazy ? VERY .

A few examples :

-- Not a clown car : The 1970 Lancia Stratos HF Zero measures only 33 inches from its rooftop to the floor .

-- Electric Egg : A tiny electric-powered , plastic , bubble-on-wheels was created in Nazi-occupied Paris in 1942 .

-- Fabric exterior : A 2001 BMW Gina wrinkles when you open its doors .

See photos of these sweet cars

Parked against a wall in another exhibit room sits a green replica 1935 Bugatti Type 57S . Steampunk fans will dig this elegant machine . It looks like something out of Disney 's `` 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea . ''

`` You can fetishize just about any detail on the Bugatti you like , from the grill to every bolt , '' a man standing nearby says to me .

This guy gets it ! We 're like kids in a candy store -- but nobody 's letting us have any candy .

Instead we 're hypnotized by the cars and their dramatic , sweeping lines and their chrome-spangled cockpits .

Related : Gorgeous art cars auctioned

Days of future past

These vehicles were designed to look like the future . Take for example the '59 Cadillac Cyclone XP-74 . It stops you cold .

The thing looks like a silver rocket from a 1950s B movie .

And it has futuristic safety features too . A radar-based anti-collision system is tucked inside the Caddy 's cone-shaped so-called `` dagmar '' headlights .

Two of the exhibit 's creators -- Ken Gross and Sarah Schleuning -- showed me around a little . `` In the past , the future was really cool , '' joked Gross , who 's also been Playboy Magazine 's car writer for more than 25 years .

Gross , the exhibit 's consulting curator , says these vehicles were imagined and built by designers with one goal : to get attention . Harley Earl 's been dead for 45 years and and he 's still turning heads . That 's called being way ahead of your time . As Gross puts it : `` Car designers are the rock stars of the automobile industry and they always have been . ''

When it came to car design , Earl pushed the industry to put style as a top priority , says Schleuning , the museum 's curator of decorative arts and design . `` It was n't just about the cars ' technological marvels , but also about their aesthetic appeal . ''

Related : Teeny cars worth big bucks

The rolling rocket

The rule breaker -- the bad boy of this bunch -- Gross says , is the Firebird . This rolling rocket gets its own chamber in the exhibit .

And it 's no wonder .

-- It 's the first two-section gas turbine powered car to be built and tested in the U.S.

-- It 's one of the first cars with four-wheel disc brakes .

-- Its body is made mostly of expensive and super strong titanium .

In 1954 GM toted the Firebird around the country as part of a traveling car show called the Motorama .

The car `` was so fast they only had one or two engineers who drove it at the proving grounds , '' Gross says . `` They used Mauri Rose , who was an Indy 500 winner , to test it -- and even he never took it to its full potential . ''

It 's been suggested that America 's century-long obsession with driving may die with the aging Baby Boomer generation . Some experts say that Millennials now in their 20s and 30s have little interest in owning cars , although sales among that group shot up in 2012 .

Are we falling out of love with our cars ?

The Atlanta museum is by no means the first to celebrate automobile design . Back in 1951 , New York 's Museum of Modern Art opened an exhibit featuring eight cars described as elegant and exotic . More recently , Gross says , the idea has become a national trend , taking hold in places like Nashville , Tennessee , and Raleigh , North Carolina .

Maybe increased interest within America 's art community will stoke the fire , and keep the romance burning a little longer .

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Art exhibit celebrates car designers , the auto industry 's `` rock stars ''

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Concept cars on display include Bugatti , Chrysler , Buick , BMW , Cadillac

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Experts wonder if America 's love affair with its car culture is fading

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Bizarre cars range from fighter-jet-on-wheels to tiny electric bubble car